Sabina Vajrača life drastically changed when war broke out in her home country in 1992. Eventually, she discovered theater and film, utilizing them to find her voice and tell her story.

Ms. Vajrača grew up in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her father’s work in humanitarian aid made their family a target during the war. Fearing that Sabina would be taken a rape camp, her mother sent her to Croatia to live with an aunt. There, Sabina became involved in theater for the first time. After her mother and younger brother joined her, they decided to leave the region altogether. When the U.S. began accepting Bosnian refugees, they applied for refugee resettlement.

After being accepted, the three of them moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1994; her father would join them a year and half later. Sabina began her senior year of high school and again participated in theater. After high school, Ms. Vajrača attended the University of Central Florida where she studied theater, and she moved to New York City after graduating.

Sabina visited Bosnia in 2003, which inspired her to make a film about her father’s journey six months later. The film, Back to Bosnia, was screened at 30 festivals worldwide and won the Director’s Choice award at the Crossroads Film Festival. Since then, she has written, produced, and directed several works, mainly focusing on film. Aside from her work as an artist, she has been praised for her humanitarian efforts. Sabina was the honoree at the 2011 Bosnian Women’s Day on Capitol Hill, an annual celebration of Bosnian-American women. She lives in New York City.